A still from the Australian film Spear (2015), directed by Stephen Page, which will screen at Winda film festival.
Photograph: Supplied/supplied

When the Indigenous dancer Medika Thorpe took an impromptu trip to Canada in 2014, she didn’t expect she would end up running a film festival in Sydney two years later.

“With Aboriginal people, we’re always trying to link ourselves to Aboriginal people of [other countries],” she says. In Thorpe’s case, her connections led her to a job at ImagineNATIVE, Toronto’s Indigenous film, media and arts festival. It was at ImagineNATIVE that she met television producer Pauline Clague, and the idea of starting their own Indigenous film festival was born..

“It just felt like the timing was right, being there as an Aboriginal Australian representative, working and being able to connect with filmmakers from back home,” says Thorpe. “Like, ‘I was meant to be here, doing this’.”

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This week, Sydney will host the product of that serendipitous meeting: the inaugural Winda film festival, a three-day celebration of Indigenous film-making from around the world. Thorpe, its executive director, and Clague, its artistic director, pulled the program together in four short months, working full-time on the project since August.

Winda – which means “stars” in the Gumbaynggirr language from northern New South Wales – will showcase a collection of Indigenous films from Australia and across the world, including New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Finland, Norway and Russia.

There are 33 works in the three-day program, starting with the opening night screening of Maori film Mahana, directed by Lee Tamahori. It is the first film Tamahori has directed in New Zealand since his acclaimed 1994 film Once Were Warriors, and tells the story of a long-running family feud and a star-crossed romance against the backdrop of the 1960s sheep-shearing industry.

The festival will also host the world premiere of Warlpiri film, Ngapa Jukurrpa – Water Songline, directed by Wanta Jampijimpa Patrick and Jeff Bruer. The short film examines the Warlpiri tradition of using fire to induce rainfall.

Thorpe and Clague designed the program to showcase both new works and pieces that they felt deserved “a cinematic experience”, like Bangarra Dance Theatre artistic director Stephen Page’s 2015 film, Spear. There are also experimental projects, like Native Slam, supported by Māoriland Film Festival, in which a group of film-makers were given $800 and 72 hours to create a film.

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The fledgling festival has received resounding support from the international Indigenous film-making community, with ImagineNATIVE becoming presenting partner, alongside funding bodies such as Screen Australia, Screen NSW, and NITV. It comes at an exciting time for Indigenous stories on screen; Screen Australia’s recent diversity report found Indigenous actors made up 5% of characters on TV over the last five years, compared with 3% of the population.

“You cannot underestimate how powerful it is for Indigenous people to turn on the TV and see a face that looks like their own,” the head of Indigenous at Screen Australia, Penny Smallacombe, told Guardian Australia. “Whilst overall diversity on Australian screens clearly has a very long way to go, what the Indigenous experience shows is when you have Indigenous decision makers within funding bodies and broadcasters, coupled with initiatives that support Indigenous writers, directors, producers and actors, diversity and good entertainment can be one in the same.”

The films at Winda film festival may cross national and cultural borders, but common themes emerge. “There’s an element of humour, which is like a coping mechanism,” says Thorpe. “There’s an element of spirituality, and culture, and the importance of family and traditional ways.”

Thorpe is proud of the community she and Clague have created. “It’s like sitting around the campfire telling stories,” she says.

“That what it is, at the end of the day. It’s about being able to share stories. Because that’s when we open ourselves up to having a connection. ... There’s always more that we can learn about ourselves and each other.”